This is something that Justin Hulog, chief studio officer at Immutable, an Australia-based non-fungible token (NFT) gaming platform, has long noticed in the blockchain gaming world. “To be fair, I actually have a lot of respect for the earliest P2E games in 2017 (such as CryptoKitties and Axie Infinity). In many ways, they started the first prototypes for people to get engaged with these models,” says Hulog in an interview with The Edge Singapore.
The crypto world has experienced a rough couple of months, with the space witnessing the most recent collapse of what was the second largest crypto exchange FTX, in addition to the prior fall of leading crypto hedge funds like Three Arrows Capital as well as the dramatic crash of TerraUSD and Luna with the onset of the ongoing crypto winter. With the market experiencing a US$2 trillion ($2.8 trillion) loss in value from November 2021 to end-September this year according to data by CoinMarketCap, businesses and investors in the crypto space have been sent into a deep spiral.
The blockchain gaming sector, which has been gaining popularity in line with the then crypto boom, has a fair share of troubles on its plate as well. Whispers of the unsustainability of play-to-earn (P2E) games have long permeated the space, with player numbers having stagnated for a time as compared to its beginning stages. As such, the arrival of the crypto winter only sent a chilling reminder to many players in the sector that there is work to be done for the continued survival of the industry.
